


Fractured Souls

by GokuGirl



Series: The Pathway to Destiny [3]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Drama, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-10-04
Updated: 2002-10-04
Packaged: 2018-04-11 06:31:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4425044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GokuGirl/pseuds/GokuGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gohan is accused of a serious crime and it's tearing him apart. Can they stop the true criminal from doing anything else?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Young Recusant Society

**Author's Note:**

> Trunks is six and Goten's five. I don't know if I'm doing a good enough job at description but this entire series takes place in a technologically advanced year in the future. As things became easier and less expensive to accomplish crime skyrocketed and everyone suffered as a result.
> 
> This story will eventually be rewritten.

Monday had never been his favorite day of the week but with the onset of school it was at the bottom of the list. First there had been the shopping for new clothes and all of the prodding that went along with it. His father would pick up a shirt or a pair of pants and promise him everything short of the stars themselves to try it on. If he allowed his father to have his way, he would be going to high school for the first time wearing slacks and a tie.

"Tousan, come on!" he protested. "I don't want to look like a nerd."

Goku continued to hold up the shirt with a hopeful smile. "Just one time, okay Gohan? These clothes say that you want to be a successful young man."

Gohan sighed. He just didn't understand.

"Let the boy choose what he wants. He knows better than you or I what's in style." Vegeta turned to Gohan. "Show us what you'd like to wear."

It was nice to have someone on his side but it would have been even better if it was his father. Gohan picked up a pair of jeans that were at least three sizes to large for him and a t-shirt to go with them. "You can afford Tommy Hilfiger, right?"

"I can also afford for you to put them back," Goku said. "I'm not going to pay thirty-four hundred yen for a t-shirt!" Then he looked at the price tag on the jeans and almost had a heart attack. "That's like a week's worth of food!"

Vegeta snickered. "Not hardly. We're saiya-jin, remember? That'll barely cover a week's worth of snacks." He received a "You're not helping." look for his effort.

"Fine, Otousan," Gohan said with more than a little anger. "I'll just go shop at Goodwill then. When I come home bruised and battered because the other kids beat me up for looking poor don't say a word."

His father just smiled at him. "Okay, I won't." Gohan threw him a look and stormed off. "Veggie, I think he's gotten worse since he became a teenager."

"Maybe, but everything'll right itself again when he turns eighteen and moves out."

"That's still four years away!" Goku was tempted to just buy him whatever he wanted, it wasn't as if he couldn't afford it. But he knew that if he gave in now that he would continue to give in his son's whims for as long as he lived. He had to get the parenting thing right the first time or his mistakes might be repeated on Trunks and Goten.

"We can always explain to him why cheaper things are just as good sometimes," Vegeta suggested. "I wouldn't buy a fourteen-hundred yen microwave but that's just me."

Goku was seriously considering going back to the mall bookstore for that parenting book he had seen. Maybe then he would have a better understanding of his fourteen-year-old son.

"Here Tousan," Gohan said, his bad mood completely gone. He showed him the clothes he had picked out and none of them were outrageously expensive. Goku and Vegeta exchanged confused looks. Would they ever understand his behavior?

After the mall they went to the office supply store to begin phase two of the back-to-school preparation mission. Gohan wanted to bypass pencils and paper in favor for a laptop but his father pointed out that the school wouldn't allow him to use it in class. The teen began to sulk for the second time that day and Goku was more than a little sick of it.

Right before he opened his mouth to yell, Vegeta stopped him and sent him away for a little while. "Why are you disagreeing with everything?"

Gohan mumbled something and looked down at his shoes. A normal person wouldn't have been able to understand him but Vegeta wasn't exactly a normal person.

"So you're intimidated by the other kids and wish that you could be home schooled." Vegeta carefully thought out his wording so that he wouldn't make everything worse. "Gohan, I can't say that I know how you feel because I've never gone to school before but all of those kids were freshman at one time too. You'll have friends there, won't you?"

"Iie," he shook his head. "I won't have any there. Most people my age are all too immature." He smiled at Vegeta. "Can I call you my friend?"

"We're going to have to talk when we get home. In the meantime please pick out some school supplies and maybe a backpack or something. Your father's about to burst a blood vessel."

Gohan went up the aisle grabbing notebooks, pens, pencils, and various other school supplies and tossed them into the handbasket. His shopped for a little while longer, using the time to form a good apology to his father.

He found him in the computer section checking out hardware for their system. Goku had gotten two computers: a new one for Vegeta to organize his business on and a home computer for the entire family. Every single store they went into that sold computer related merchandise was carefully explored. Gohan didn't mind, he loved upgrading the computer and getting more software. Vegeta and Trunks could care less.

Gohan stood next to him for a moment, searching for the courage to speak first. "Um, Tousan?"

He looked up. "Hai?"

"I'msorryformakingyouangry." It came out in one long explosion of breath. He put spaces between his words with effort. "I'll try not to do it again in the future."

"Well, trying is all that anyone can do, Gohan. I accept your apology." Goku made a note of how much the memory and hard drive cost. "Are you ready to go back home?"

He nodded. "Sure. I was so close to explaining to the munchkins why playing in my room was a bad thing. I come home sometimes and my things are everywhere!"

"They look up to you, son. You're the best big brother in the world to them. Haven't you noticed Goten and Trunks following you around and imitating the things that you do?"

"They do?" Gohan was inwardly pleased. "I never noticed that."

"Why don't you spend time with them once and a while? It'll be worth it."

Gohan nodded and took a place in a checkout line. School shopping always made him melancholy because it always meant that his summer freedom was coming to an end. New school, new faces, new teachers, new challenges.

He really, really hated change.

***

"You only have to go a few blocks out of your way, Gohan. Please do this for me just this once." Vegeta continued to search for his car keys as he spoke. "Your father got called to the hospital and I have a seven-thirty appointment at the office. It won't kill you to take your little brothers to school."

Gohan finally gave in and nodded. He couldn't really find a good way out of it anyway. His day, so far, had hit rock bottom. First his hair was spikier than usual, then it took him five minutes to find his other shoe, and now he had to take the chibis off to elementary school. He smoothed his shirt and took Trunks and Goten's hands.

"I can cross the street by myself!" Trunks said loudly. He was ignored. Gohan said goodbye to the man who had been just as much his parent as Goku and went off to school.

' _Everyone looks miserable,_ ' Gohan said to himself as he observed the behaviors of the other school age children. He recognized the twin boys from next door that Goten and Trunks often played with and instantly felt sorry for them when he saw their school uniform. He was lucky enough to be going to a school that didn't require them but it did seem to be the current trend among public and private schools alike.

Goten was bouncing up-and-down in place, happy as can be on his very first day of school. Trunks was bored with the entire thing as it was his second year and could hardly wait until the end of the day when he was once again free.

"School, school, school, school, school!" Goten sang as loud as he could. Gohan was torn between covering his ears and keeping his little brothers close by. After several more moments of wincing he finally gave up and blocked out Goten's voice as best he could. Trunks immediately took off running down the sidewalk, his best-friend right behind him.

"COME BACK HERE!" Gohan shouted as he ran after him. He had to dodge little kids, parents, and even cars when the boys darted across the street. The teen involuntarily flinched every time a car came too close and just wished that the entire day was over with.

He caught up with them at a very busy intersection and was relieved when the two of them had the sense to stop and wait for the light to turn red before crossing. Gohan grabbed them around the waists and took them from their feet, holding both struggling boys underneath his arms.

"Are you two insane?!" he shouted. "You could have been killed!"

"No we wouldn't have," Trunks said with certainty. "Tousan and papa are super strong. We have to have some of that, too."

Gohan paused on the sidewalk and looked at him. "How do you know? I've never seen them do anything really abnormal."

"One day last week when you were at the park, tousan picked up the couch and moved it all by himself." Trunks raised his arms to show him just how he held it. "That's why it was by the window when you came home."

He hadn't even noticed when it had been moved. Vegeta had been at the store and came back after he did. Logically his tousan shouldn't have been able to do that.

"Tousan could beat up Superman!" Goten said with a grin.

"No he couldn't, baka. No one can beat up Superman."

Gohan started walking again, he didn't have much time until school began. "Knock it off, Trunks. Name calling isn't allowed."

Makuda Elementary was a plain brick two-story building that sat on one of the busiest streets in Tokyo. He made sure each boy was in the correct line for his class and waved goodbye to them. He had only fifteen minutes to make it down the street to his own school.

The bell finished ringing just as he slid into his homeroom. He went to a corner seat in the very back and tried to make himself as unnoticeable as possible. He didn't want to attract attention from the future convicts.

Gakusha-sensei began to call off names, handing an official schedule to those he called up. When Gohan's was finally called he quickly went up and got his classes, hoping that nothing embarrassing happened on his way back down the aisle. A boy he recognized from his old school greeted him and he mumbled something unintelligible before making it safely back to his seat.

Nothing bad had happened so far.

When the bell rang for the next class, Gohan suddenly wished that he had sat near the door so that he could be the first one to leave. By the time he made it into the hallway it was already packed full of students, most of whom were taller than he was. Intimidation settled like a stone in the pit of his stomach and he made his way silently to Beginning Band.

"Gohan!" Someone called from behind. He looked briefly over his shoulder and saw no one even looking in his direction. He shrugged and continued on. The same voice called again and he was suddenly staring at the face of a girl he hardly remembered. She grinned at him and grabbed him in a sudden hug. Gohan froze almost instantly. He had a thing about people invading his personal space and she had crossed the line from crowding to smothering.

He let her touch him for about five seconds before saying something. "Who *are* you?"

She laughed, her voice high and shrill. "You're so funny, Gohan! Pretending like you don't know who I am!"

Gohan basically was at the end of his patience with her. He pried her arms away and took several steps back. Crazy people are potentially dangerous at all times. "I really don't know who you are. Sorry."

At first he thought that she was going to cry but she only frowned at him and walked away without another word. He shook his head at the sheer strangeness of people sometimes and continued on to his class.

"She was definitely weird."

***

There are only two types of people as far as cafeteria groups were concerned: those who ate with others and those who did not. Gohan fell into the latter category partially by his own self-isolation and partially because the other kids seemed to be avoiding him.

It hadn't seemed that big of a deal, really. In gym third hour he was terrified when he realized that he had to change clothes *and* shower in front of people that he didn't know. After changing into his school-issued gym clothing and running track in them he stared at the other boys sort of wide-eyed in awe. Big Mistake Number One, he discovered, was: never pointedly look at the other boys in the gym locker room.

"What are you doing?!" A tall tenth-grader said loudly as if he had been committing some felonious act. The other boy wrapped the white towel around his waist even tighter and said something to his friend. Both of them, and those in the surrounding area, broke out into laughter and Gohan blushed brightly. He quickly went around to the other row of lockers where his own was located and turned the dial. It took him three tries in his haste to get it open.

"They scare you, don't they," a voice asked from behind. He jumped and spun around to face the new boy with the deep voice. His eyebrows rose of their own accord as his eyes moved from the top of his dyed black hair down to the toes of his black combat boots.

"Who are you?" Gohan turned back to his locker and got his regular clothes from it. "I'm Gohan, by the way."

"Yuji, Harada Yuji. I've seen you around in middle school, back when I was unaware."

He was starting to scare him just a little bit. Gohan decided to bypass a shower to save himself some embarrassment but Yuji didn't leave him alone.

"There's a group of us in this school and most schools across the world. We're the ones who don't fit into any other group, the ones who are ignored."

"I'm not ignored," Gohan said as he tied his shoes. "I prefer to be alone."

"That may be true," he said, "but everyone needs someone to talk to." The bell rang just as Gohan had grabbed his backpack and they walked to the cafeteria together, Yuji talking the entire way.

Now he sat, alone, at a small table in a corner and watched the world on the other side of the plate glass window go by.

The YRS was sort of interesting though he didn't see how he fit in. He hardly ever wore black to school and didn't own any silver jewelry or leather. He was taken with the main goal of the group, though. They were nonconformist and he had never cared enough to follow the latest trends -- usually. There were times when he was tempted to just blend in but standing out as an individualist was even better now that he thought about it. Your personal sense of style showed the world just a little bit of your personality.

"This is Trinity and her sister, Toriniti," Yuji introduced after he greeted Gohan. The twin sisters had both also dyed their hair an inky black but they had brown streaks running through it. Trinity wore black leather pants with a tank top while her sister had on a black lace dress. "They are the leaders of our society."

Trinity handed him a computer-printed flyer with a smile. "We welcome all those interested, Gohan. The YRS is a group where all can feel welcome."

"We're having a meeting after school if you would like to attend," Toriniti added. "No pressure."

"I'll be there," he promised as he finished up his lunch.

The remainder of the day went by slowly with people whispering behind his back. ' _Curiosity isn't a crime,_ ' he told himself. ' _I've read in a book that all boys do the size comparison thing at one point in life. My mistake was being too obvious about it._ '

Sixth hour was cancelled that day by order of the principal. There was to be an assembly in the auditorium instead, one that no one, not ever the teachers, knew the topic of. The kids filed through both sets of doors in an orderly fashion and was seated by in groups according to homeroom teachers. Gohan felt an almost paralyzing fear. What if the principal knew where his eyes were in the locker room and there really was some sort of rule concerning it? He knew the odds of that were low but there was always the chance he would be called out as a pervert in front of the entire student body. He trembled uncontrollably as he imagined all of the mocking laughter and looks of disgust that he was sure to draw. Life would definitely be miserable if such a thing ever was to happen.

Aizawa-sensei was a short balding man with a serious bad attitude. He wore small, rounded classes perched upon his sharply pointed nose and his fingers seemed to be always be smoothing down his ugly brown suits. "Welcome teachers, students, and other faculty," he said. "There is an important issue I would like to address, first, before getting into the real reason I called this assembly."

He cleared his throat and leaned forward slightly over the podium. Gohan felt that his gaze was focused directly on him. His next words eased his fear just a bit. "The years following the Self-Expression Act of 2009 were a troubled time. No longer could authorities take away a person's natural right to freedom of expression without facing dire consequences. At the same time others, who were unwilling to acquire their own nice things in a legal manner, murdered over a single pair of expensive shoes. These unlawful acts eventually faded away until they had become nonexistent until just recently.

"I am pleased to announce that a law that I've been pushing for several months has finally gone into effect as of last week. From this point onward all students attending public and private schools in the city of Tokyo will be required to wear uniforms."

There was dead silence throughout the room for a moment before all hell broke loose. The principal smiled in a kind manner and said, "We are only concerned with your personal safety. There will be no more fighting over clothing and no more tension over appearance."

A boy sitting behind Gohan muttered to his friend, "Now there'll be wars with the other schools over who has the best uniform. How pathetic."

"You must give your clothing sizes to your homeroom teacher!" Aizawa shouted over the din. "If you are not wearing your uniform by the end of tomorrow then you will be expelled!"

The assembly was ended and Gohan was released from the confines of the auditorium in a very bad mood. He wondered what the YRS would have to say about Aizawa-sensei's proclamation.

They didn't disappoint him with their anger. After the twins officially began the meeting the group of malcontented recusants voiced their opinions on the matter.

"Please state your name for our guests first," Trinity said with a smile.

"I'm Dirk and I'm disgusted with Aizawa's words. How can they take away our right to individuality? We aren't all the same exact people and the school board knows it. Everyone is different and freedom of expression was a way to show that to everyone in the world. I agree that it's sad people choose to hurt others over small things like appearance but why punish everyone for the actions of a few?"

There were many murmurs of agreement throughout the group and Gohan found himself comfortable around his peers for the first time in a while. These weren't people who spent far too much time on things of a frivolous nature.

Gohan raised his hand to speak and stood after Trinity pointed to him. "My name's Gohan. I don't think that there's much that we can do to change the uniform rule. We could draw up a petition and take it to a city council meeting but the adults will only use the, "We're doing this for your own good." line. I'm as angry as the rest of you but we're stuck."

Yuji looked at him as he shook his head. After waiting for one of the twins to call on him, opened a pamphlet and pointed to a place on the second page. "The second rule of the YRS is: never give in to authority. They want to control every aspect of our lives, Gohan. The uniforms are only the beginning, next they'll press regulation haircuts, and then computer monitoring chips. In just a few short years our privacy could be completely taken away. There won't be a single thing you say or do that they won't know about."

"How can you get to that conclusion from a single uniform rule?" Gohan wondered aloud. Either these people were extremely paranoid or they knew far more about the government than he did and none of them looked like the paranoid type.

"Several members of the RS discovered small microchips in common things that they had purchased from a department store downtown. After taking the objects apart they found that the government had tiny equipment monitoring their every move." Toriniti handed him a sheet of paper documenting their findings. "When something is possible it will be done."

Gohan agreed sadly. It was yet more evidence to the downfall of humanity.


	2. A Crime Gone Unpunished

He was sadly lacking in black clothing and made a mental note to ask his father to return his other clothes to the department store. It wasn't as if he would be allowed to wear what he wanted after today anyway. Gohan dressed in a new pair of black jeans and chose a black tank top to wear underneath the black-and-silver dress shirt. He smiled at himself in the mirror and thought that he looked pretty good.

"Ohayo Tousan, Vegeta-tousan." He took a seat at the breakfast table in a very good mood. Goku looked up from the stock report and raised an eyebrow.

"Gohan, are you in mourning?"

He shook his head. "Uh, no. Why would I be?"

"I haven't ever seen you wear that much black before. I thought red was your favorite color."

Gohan was surprised that he had noticed something so small and didn't say anything more as he poured himself a bowl of cereal. Everyone was silent until Trunks and Goten started a small war with Cheerios, using their spoons to launch missiles across the table at each other. After equally stern looks from the two father-figures at the table the boys stopped wasting food.

"Gohan's gonna rob a bank," Trunks said as he drank the milk from the bowl. "That's why he's wearing black."

"But it's daytime!" Goten protested.

Vegeta muffled his laughter and Gohan rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to rob anything, munchkin. I've just joined a club."

"Oh?" Goku asked him. "What kind of club? The science club? The chess club?"

"The YRS." He thought that his father probably had no idea what the acronym stood for and he was right.

But Vegeta did.

"They must have groups all over the city," Vegeta said partially to himself. "I know there was a chapter for those over eighteen in the college I went to."

Goku frowned, thinking that the YRS was an evil thing. "What do the letters stand for, Gohan?"

"Young Recusant Society." He sighed as his father dropped the newspaper onto the table. "It's not a bad thing, Tousan! And before you ask, I know what a recusant is already."

"A recusant is just one step away from an anarchist. First it begins with just trying to be unique then it progresses to ignoring all forms of authority just because they restrict your freedom. I don't want you around people who think that way."

"How do you know how they think?" Gohan asked with forced calm. If he became angry then his father won the argument. "I didn't know you could read minds." He pushed away from the table, got his backpack, and headed straight for the front door. "You tell me that I need to be around kids more and then, after I finally join a social group, you want me to stay away from them." He went through the door without looking back. "Make up your mind."

It was a nice day but Gohan didn't notice it. He examined the argument from every angle and came to only one conclusion: his father was overprotective. ' _Tousan's so worried that I'll befriend the wrong people that he won't let me even be around them! I won't do that to my kids._ '

A few members from the YRS were standing before the main doors, one holding a clipboard and a pen, the others holding up handmade signs. They were obviously against the uniforms and were getting quite a few signatures on the petition.

Just as Gohan finished signing his name one of the doors opened and Aizawa-sensei stepped through looking as stern as usual. The crowd of students all turned their attention to them as a YRS member presented the principal with the petition. He barely glanced at it before ripping it to shreds in front of them all.

"Get to your homerooms," he said coldly. "The uniforms are nonnegotiable."

"We're going to have to give in on the uniforms but he can't control what accessories we wear with them," Gohan smirked and pulled a silver chain from his pocket. It was the only one he owned. Haru and Toichi, two boys he had met after the meeting the day before, gave him two thumbs up.

As the day wore on (and the dreadful hour of physical education approached) he wondered what made him different from the rest of the boys. He knew that he didn't care all that much for playing sports (though his watched them occasionally) and didn't make inappropriate comments about various girls in the school. Did he really have to do those things to be accepted by the other boys? If so then he was proud to be different.

There was one thing, one tiny little thing, he knew of that made him a minority. He liked boys and not just as friends either. A few years ago scientists discovered that it was a gene inside of people that made them attracted to members of the same sex and he knew who he received it from. Gohan loved his father more than anyone else in the world, including his mother, so he would never speak ill of him.

Third hour rolled around and he changed as quickly as he could before any of the older boys showed up. He and Yuji chatted for a while, mostly about the uniform ultimatum, and Gohan found that he felt at ease with his new friend. That's why Yuji's extremely personally question shocked him beyond belief.

"Are you gay?" he blurted out as fast as he could. Gohan had to mentally separate the three words before forming his reply.

He took a deep breath. "I've never really thought about that before yesterday," he admitted. "I was just Son Gohan, a fourteen-year-old boy originally born in Western Capital. If you place a label on me then you're going against what the YRS stands for. I don't have to conform with being straight, gay, or bi. I'm just me."

Yuji nodded but Gohan could see in his eyes that he knew his answer. ' _So what if I'm... gay? At least I'm not evil._ '

The gym locker room was easily becoming the number one place that Gohan feared the most. Even though he did everything short of covering his eyes he still saw glimpses of naked bodies. Some of them made his heart beat faster and he grew a little bit light-headed as his blood rushed downward on a direct course to embarrassment. ' _Damn it!_ ' he cursed to himself. ' _Stupid teenage hormones._ '

He felt that he broke a record for speed as he changed his clothes, praying that no one noticed how his pants poked out in the front. Just as he was on his way out of the door he accidentally bumped into a naked junior. The older and larger boy looked at him for a second as Gohan struggled to keep his eyes at chest-level and then looked down at noticed his problem. The boy grinned viciously and shoved him backward towards the other boys.

"Hey guys!" he shouted so that everyone could hear him. "I think I've caught a fairy!"

A lot of them looked confused but the few who had attended the school last year knew exactly what he was talking about.

"What do we do to fairies?" Gohan grew pale because he knew it wasn't anything good. He tried to prepare himself for the worst but still the first blow caught him by surprise. All of the air rushed out of him from the hard punch to his stomach and he automatically doubled over in pain. The little self-defense that he had learned from his father and Vegeta flew out of his mind as he collapsed onto the floor and curled into the smallest ball possible. The kicks and punches he was taking all became secondary in his mind as he wondered what it would feel like to die. Was everything paradise like the stories said?

A bright, shining light appeared before his eyes and grew larger and larger. Just as his hand was about to touch it everything went dark and he realized that there was no more noise. The stinging insults and cruel laughter of his assailants were gone as were the shouts of his would-be defenders. He felt a hand on his, quietly holding it, and he knew before looking that it was his father. Someone was crying on his other side, hot tears falling onto his arm, and his heart sang with joy as he recognized the person that the sound belonged to. The time that they spent together in that small, cramped cell in the well-guarded fortress of a murderer seemed like eons ago but he would never forget the sound or the owner of that voice.

"You don't have to cry anymore, Colby," he said hoarsely. "I'll be alright."

He turned his head to face him and cracked open his eyes just in time for ice blue to meet dark brown. Colby's face broke out into a wide smile and he hugged Gohan as hard as he could without causing him unnecessary pain.

"I thought you were- I mean, I felt- I'm so glad you're alive!"

"Did Tousan call you?" Gohan asked, wondering how he knew what had happened.

He shook his head. "I felt it when it happened, I don't know how or why. I even had a flash of them carrying you away in the ambulance. I freaked out a little and called your house as soon as I could. Son-san told me where you were."

"Do you remember what happened, Gohan?" Goku asked him, a worried expression on his face. He was concerned about his son now, he would have time to be pissed about what had happened later.

"Hai," he said softly and really wished that he didn't. It would have been better if he had forgotten because of a blow to the head, his mind would have protected him from the harsh truth. As it were he remembered every blow dealt, every word said, and every look of satisfaction on their faces. It would be something that he carried to his grave. Goku clearly saw the dark look that entered his son's eyes and wondered what had happened other than the beating.

"The boy said that he was 'taking care of the fairy'," Gohan mumbled, not looking at his father. "I know that it's genetic but am I supposed to be punished for something I can't control for the rest of my life?"

His father couldn't say a word. Not having first-hand knowledge of what he was going through, he didn't know anything that he could say or do that would ease some of the pain. Colby's grip tightened on Gohan's hand until the younger boy's gaze met his.

"There is absolutely no excuse for what they've done to you. None at all. Who, or what, you are doesn't justify their actions. Who gives them the right to pass judgement on you anyway? They can't get away with playing judge, jury, and executioner. I love you Gohan and not because you're gay." Gohan winced slightly at the word. "I love you because you're a compassionate person who wouldn't ever think of hurting someone else. If the rest of the world had even five percent of your kindness then there would be no more suffering for anyone ever again."

He was crying but they were tears of happiness. Goku had left the two of them alone in the beginning of their conversation and neither boy had noticed. "When did you get so wise?" Gohan asked while using his free hand to wipe his face. "I just talked to you last week."

"I've been doing a lot of thinking about my life lately. My aunt's a religious zealot and every Sunday when we go to church the reverend seems to always talk about homosexuality and its corruption upon the world." He shook his head. "It's pretty fitting that her church is filled with a huge group of people just like her. I have to listen to her criticize others every single day and I asked myself the same exact question. There's no one answer to it but then again is there a single answer to anything?"

There was a gentle knock on the door before Vegeta opened in a crack. "Are you up to more visitors?"

"Sure, Vegeta-tousan. Go ahead and let the little rugrats inside."

"I'm *not* a rugrat," Trunks said with an insulted look on his face. He approached the bed slowly and took a moment just to look him over. "Gohan, are you gonna live?"

Goten burst into tears and just about threw himself at his brother. "Don't die niichan!"

"He's not going to die," Vegeta said as he patted his back. "I believe he'll be perfectly fine by tomorrow."

Colby gave him a look. "How? Those assholes did a thorough job of rendering him unable to move, you know."

The man pulled back the sheet and blanket and began to examine carefully much to Gohan's embarrassment. He poked him in the ribs where the doctors had previously found the more serious injuries and the boy giggled a little.

"That tickles!"

"But it doesn't hurt, does it?"

His eyes widened as he quickly felt over the entire front side of his body looking for pain. There wasn't any at all. "How in the world-?"

"You know that your father is completely saiya-jin, right?" Gohan nodded. "There are certain things that come with sharing our blood. Rapid healing is one of them. The doctor was pretty surprised after seeing the x-ray. Your bone structure's different than a ningen's Gohan. The man just about had a heart attack before your father and I explained things to him."

Gohan felt a surge of happy emotion swell inside of him and let it out by laughing joyously. "I'm fine!" He shouted as he jumped from the bed and hugged everyone in the room. "I'm not going to die!"

Colby placed a hand on his shoulder. "You thought that you were going to die?"

"Hai. It hurt so bad and I was afraid. Then I saw this bright light the next thing I knew I was here." He sobered as he realized just how close his life had come to ended permanently. "I didn't want to leave you or anyone that I cared about. I knew you all would be unhappy if I did. But at that moment, for one brief second, I really considered going just to escape the pain."

"You won't have to worry about that ever again," Colby said as he took his arm. "No one's getting past me. I promise."

Gohan smiled as he thought of all the people who were always ready to stand up and defend him and knew that he would have the strength to do anything as long as he had their continued support.

***

He hated the uniform he had to wear for the remainder of his high school career but he knew that the girls' version was a lot worse. At least he didn't have to wear a plaid skirt.

The pants and vest were navy, the shirt was a bright white, and the tie that took him ten minutes to figure out was navy plaid. Overall he looked absolutely ridiculous.

Gohan had to admit that Trunks and Goten looked even worse. Their pants were plaid and they even had a plaid beret with a little white pompom. He guessed that someone thought they would look adorable but instead they looked like golf caddie rejects. It was all he could do to keep from laughing as he took his usual seat at the breakfast table.

"Here's the game plan for today, Gohan. Vegeta and I are going up to that school to speak with your principal. You're coming into his office with us. If he can't provide a safe environment for you and the rest of the students then I'll ask the school board to find someone who will. You have a right to an education as much as anyone else."

They had the misfortune to arrive just as the other kids were just getting out of homeroom. He knew that they were staring and whispering at him but Gohan held his head up high and refused to make them happy by looking afraid. Inwardly he was terrified of what the boys might do to him and what the principal was going to say. He sweated beneath the uncomfortable clothing, making the fabric stick to his body. The main office loomed ahead, it's white sign with black lettering looking awfully big.

It was cool inside, the air conditioner in the window providing a comfort that the classrooms sorely lacked. He took a seat on one of the ugly brown chairs next to Vegeta and began to fidget as his father spoke to the receptionist.

"I didn't do anything wrong," he mumbled to himself. "Why am I so afraid?"

"You don't know how the principal is going to react," Vegeta whispered to him almost inaudibly. "It's just a fear of the unknown."

"I'm partially afraid of the man himself. He even *looks* evil."

Aizawa-sensei appeared in his doorway and motioned them inside with a stern look and a quick jerk of his hand. The two adults didn't appreciate his lack of courtesy but Gohan was just glad he didn't glare at him. Just when his heart was beginning to beat normally for the first time that day, the door was closed and Aizawa took a seat behind his large desk with a blatantly enraged look on his face.

"You should have told me about his problem before," he said in a fierce tone. "I could have alerted the staff before an incident such as this happened."

Gohan, frankly, was speechless but his two fathers were not.

"Excuse me?!" they both exclaimed in unison.

"There are others of his kind in this school, larger and older ones. They could have provided protection."

Gohan began to shake his head slowly. "Why are you treating me as if I'm one step below a person?"

"That's exactly what your kind are." He pulled a pad from his top desk drawer and began to write in quick, angry marks. "It's your own fault for acting anything other than normal. I wouldn't have you here but the laws say I have to." He snorted. "As if you deserve an education. Anyone who makes a decision to screw people of the same sex are obviously mentally unstable and should be locked away in an asylum to receive treatment for their perversion."

Goku's face was turning red in his rage and both Gohan and Vegeta laid a hand on each arm to try and restrain him.

Aizawa turned his attention to the two men. "I see where he got the idea from. Grown men like you should know that a relationship should produce a kid out of it. This boy isn't too late to save, I should recommend to social services that custody be taken away from you and placed with his mother."

He found himself standing before he had even thought about it. The man could say whatever he wanted about himself but he had no right to say anything about his fathers. "I won't allow you to say anything else about them, bastard. You aren't even worthy enough for our time."

Gohan looked at Vegeta, who had a half-smile on his face, and at Goku, whose color was returning to normal. They filed through the doorway one-by-one, with Gohan pausing to say one last thing.

"You're going to get yours someday, Aizawa. The three-fold rule is especially harsh on bakas like you." He slammed the door closed so hard that the frosted glass window nearly shattered.

The hallways were empty as they walked back to the parking lot, all three lost in their thoughts. On the ride home, Goku's anger calmed and he turned tear-filled eyes toward his son. Gohan felt a large lump grow in his throat as he struggled not to join him. Somehow seeing his father, a man who always seemed to have it all together, weep was enough to make him break down in hysterical sobbing.

They held each other out there in the driveway where any nosey person who just happened to glance out of their livingroom windows could see them. Vegeta was the silent support they each needed, offering comfort without saying a word. Long minutes passed as the two Son males got themselves under control and Vegeta slipped off to get them each something to drink, leaving them alone for the conversation he knew they needed to have.

"I should have warned you," Goku said sadly. "I know how people can react to things they don't understand."

"All of the warning in the world wouldn't have prepared me for that, Tousan. Please don't feel bad about it."

"I can't stop, Gohan. I should have said something to you after ChiChi told me that she suspected." He clamped a hand over his mouth but it was too late, the damage had already been done.

Gohan was horrified. "Kaasan *knows*?"

He patted him on the back. "Don't worry about it, she's completely supportive. It was after I told her about Vegeta and I."

"I wish I could have heard *that* conversation."

What would he do about school tomorrow? Could he go back with the knowledge that he might be assaulted again and nothing would be done about it? He had to, he decided. If only to show those boys that nothing they could ever do would break him.

People have come a long way in curing illnesses, lowering unemployment, illiteracy, and poverty but they still had light-years to go in respect and civility. Gohan wondered how could anyone bring a child into a world so filled with hate when absolutely nothing was being done to cure it?

Underneath the layers of anger, hatred, and malice there were layers of uncertainty, confusion, misery, and fear. Those emotions were almost always the source of a violent act. If someone were to completely obliterate them then there would be no more crime.

He knew that it sounded like a very simple solution to an timeless problem but no one could find a way to approach it. Scientists could isolate every negative gene in the human body and still crime would remain.

It would always remain.

"I have a lot to do for tomorrow, Tousan," he mumbled absentmindedly. His mind was already think up possible ways to change the world. "School will never be the same again."

Gohan went into the house, eyes seeing only the finished product of many hours of work, while his father stood outside asking himself many of the same questions that had gone through his son's mind only moments before.


	3. Terrors of the Mind

There were small groups of students standing here and there on the school's front lawn but Gohan didn't find anything unusual about it until he heard the small sounds associated with grief. Their voices were hushed as they spoke, constantly broken by sniffles and the sound of noses being blown, and looks of fear were upon their faces. Gohan stood there, confused, and worked up the courage to question the nearest student.

It was the vaguely familiar dark-haired girl from the first day of school.

"It's so horrible Gohan!" she said while dabbing at her eyes with a white handkerchief. "They said he was just lying there in a pool of his own blood."

"Who died?" he asked with a brief hope that it was the unknown junior. The girl shook her head, apparently remembering the exact moment she had been informed, and burst into tears again.

She took a few deep breaths and answered, "Aizawa-sensei."

He stared at her for a moment, his mind refusing to give the words meaning. Then he nodded slowly. "The universe has been balanced."

"What are you saying?" she asked, eyes wide with shock. "Are you happy that he's dead?"

"Not necessarily happy but satisfied. He said things to me that I will never forgive him for." Gohan started off towards the main entrance and after a second's delay the girl followed him.

"I heard about that at lunch on Monday and even more on Tuesday," she said to him. "Ashida and his friends beat the crap out of you in the gym locker room."

"I wonder how much of what everyone has heard is a lie," he said aloud to no one in particular. He glanced over at her. "It happened, I healed. It's over."

"They also said that you had bruises all over your body. Actually, it was Yuji who told me that. I found him outside sitting underneath a tree looking pale and horrified." She looked him over. "You don't look like someone who'd been beaten half-to-death only two days ago."

He was more than a little annoyed with her. "Look-"

"It's Videl."

"Look Videl-" He broke off and blinked. "Videl Satan? Is that your name?"

She smiled slightly. "Nice of you to finally remember me. You look exactly the same, Gohan. Haven't seen you around for a while, though."

"I live with my tousan now. Did you move to Tokyo for good?"

"That's another thing...." She stopped in the hallway and leaned against the wall next to her homeroom. "You said that you live with your father, right?"

He nodded. "And my little brothers."

"Who was that other man who came in with you? I know who your tousan is, he's the tall one. Who was the short man?"

A million answers went through his mind. ' _I could say that he's my uncle or my cousin but tousan and kaasan always told me not to lie._ ' "He's Vegeta, tousan's life-partner." ' _Hey, that was a lot better than "boyfriend"._ '

"Oh." She had been expecting that answer but still she was surprised. "I've heard rumors about the main suspect. I thought I should tell you before someone screamed at you."

He had a bad feeling but remained silent. Gohan could bet money that Aizawa had plenty of enemies throughout Tokyo. Any one of them could have knocked him off. "What's wrong, Videl? Why are you warning me?"

"They think you or your father did it, Gohan. The secretaries said that you were both pretty angry after you left his office yesterday."

"Anger has nothing to do with it," he told her. "He's probably made hundreds of people angry on a daily basis."

"Maybe so but you're still a suspect." She patted him on the shoulder and went off down the hall. "See you later."

Gohan knew by the expressions on their faces that they thought he was a murderer. Yuji spoke to him just outside of the gym and suggested that he steer clear of Ashida for the rest of his life.

"I'm not going to fail that class because of him," he told him. "He can just keep his violent tendencies to himself from now on."

"You and I both know that's not going to happen." The boy let the worry and fear that he was feeling show on his face. "I haven't known you long but it would be terrible if he killed you."

"He's not going to kill me."

"Oh? Why are you so sure? Have you received a written statement from Ashida specifically saying that he wasn't going to lay a finger on you?"

Gohan turned away and fixed his gaze on the wooden doors to the gym. He couldn't look at Yuji; he was afraid of what he'd find in his eyes. He knew in his heart that Ashida could beat on him at any time but he had successfully convinced himself that nothing more would happen.

"You're only lying to yourself if you think this is over," he said to break the silence. "It's only just begun Gohan."

"Don't you think that I know that?" he asked as he spun back around with tears of frustration in his eyes. "It's written in stone, Yuji. For the remainder of my life I'm going to be insulted, beaten, and discriminated against." He realized that he was yelling and lowered his voice. "My tousan has been lucky enough to find someone to love and to cherish. I want that with someone someday but the risk is too great."

Yuji felt horrible for him but could only find one thing to say. "Life's a bitch and then you die."

"Don't I know it."

***

Six minutes into Ushiba-sensei's lecture on equations, two police officers strode right on into class and took him from Algebra to a small office near in the science wing. He figured that they wanted to interrogate him and followed without a word.

"I didn't kill him," Gohan said calmly even though visions of prison ran through his head. "I can tell you right now that I was at home for the rest of the day after I left the school."

The second office, a tall woman, smiled at him and he instantly didn't like her. "Hold on now. We're not accusing you of anything."

"Don't lie to me. Everyone thinks that I either killed the man or played a part in his death. He treated me like a worthless animal the entire time he spoke to me but even that's not enough for me to actually harm him."

The woman took the seat across from him at the table. "Do you have anyone outside of your family that could verify that you were at home?"

He had decided against calling Colby because they had spoken for hours the day before. Gohan regretted his decision. "Gomen nasai but iie. My tousans were at home with me, though. Both had taken the day off."

"I see." Her partner wrote something down on a piece of paper. "Where were you between the hours of five and seven a.m. today?"

' _What does that time have to do with anything?_ ' "Why?"

"Aizawa-san was murdered sometime this morning."

"I was at home. Tousan woke me up at about six-thirty. I had breakfast at seven and then I walked Goten and Trunks to school around seven-twenty."

"And they are?"

"My younger brothers."

The man took over for the woman, leaving her to record Gohan's words. "Tell me in your own words about the conference you had with Aizawa-san yesterday."

Anger was a predominant emotion yesterday but he hadn't been mad enough to hurt anyone. Actually, he pitied the principal more than he hated him. At least he had the capacity to care about others who were different from himself. "Monday I had been attacked by several other students who were merciless with their abuse. On Tuesday tousan and Vegeta-tousan came up here with me to speak with Aizawa-sensei about how he was going to handle the problem."

"Did he handle it in a way that you were satisfied?"

"No. I have to say that he made me angry. The entire time we were in his office he went on to say that basically I had brought the entire thing down upon myself. I don't appreciate being told that "my kind" should be punished for our perversion, Officer."

"Of course not, Gohan. No one would." His sympathy would have been more believable if he hadn't said it in monotone. "I would like you to undergo a psychiatric test for me, son." He held up his hand when Gohan opened his mouth to ask, "Why?" "It's now becoming formality, is all. You still have to consent to one but we like to get to know people a little better."

"In other words you want to see if I'm really a killer deep down inside," he muttered to himself but still signed his name after reading over the form. "What will it take for me to convince you that I didn't kill Aizawa-sensei?"

The female officer fixed him with an intense stare. "Concrete evidence. We'll speak to you again later, Gohan. Don't leave the city any time soon."

***

His father was called down to the police station in the middle of his shift at the hospital. The officers didn't care that he had a duty, they wanted to interrogate him A.S.A.P. Vegeta picked up pizzas from dinner after leaving the office and made it home around ten minutes before Goku did.

"I can't believe they think we killed him," Goku said to Gohan with a frown on his face. "When have we ever taken a person's life before?"

"Never."

"They why would the police think such a thing?" He was becoming frustrated with searching for an answer to his question and that in turn was giving him a headache. Vegeta appeared by his as silent as smoke and led him gently over to the sofa to give him a backrub. Gohan folded his arms and rested on the back.

"It's their job to explore every possible lead, I guess," he said. "Anger is usually a very good motive. Money, drugs, and sex usually follow."

Goku chuckled. "Do you get this stuff from t.v., Gohan?"

"Hey, I read books too you know." He pretended to be offended. "Actually we learned all of this in law class last year. In the mock trial I was the presiding judge."

"I can find out who really killed that man," Vegeta said so suddenly he startled both of them. "I am a private investigator after all."

Gohan had completely forgotten about that. "Would you really? Can I help you?"

The two men stared at each other for a moment before Vegeta gave his ascent. It was weird watching them do that even though he knew that they could speak within their minds. It was all a part of the bond. The thing that really irritated him, though, was knowing that they did it only when he wasn't supposed to overhear.

"C'mon Vegeta-tousan, let's hit the street! Time's wasting!"

Vegeta resisted his pull towards the front door and instead dragged Gohan backward. "We're not hitting anything tonight. The best way for you to help me is to ask around at school."

"You need his records don't you?" he asked with a smile on his face. "I've studied a lot of computer books so I can probably get into his files within half-and-hour."

His father turned to fix him with a look that made him squirm with discomfort. "What sort of books, Gohan? 'Ten Easy Steps to Becoming a Hacker'?"

"It all started out with a need to know exactly how certain programs worked," Gohan began. He paced back-and-forth on the carpet. "Windows 2009 was driving me crazy so I wanted to tweak it just a bit." He held up his thumb and index finger to illustrate. "I just edited the code. Haven't you noticed that it crashes less?"

"To the point, please."

He recognized the tone in his father's voice and sped up. "Anyway, I practiced with security codes on small sites and made sure to cover my trail. These people really need to consider an alternate form of security software."

Goku rolled his eyes. "I've been saying this over and over again for years but I'll say it just one more time. Gohan, you're too smart for your own good."

"I'm not sure whether to be pleased or offended."

"Be neither, you've still broken the law." Goku beckoned him closer and then turned to Vegeta. "What should I do with him on this one? Lock him out of the computer for three weeks?"

Gohan was shocked and was definitely not above begging him not to at that point.

"He's a hacker, koi. How long do you think it would take him to break into the computer?"

The boy let out a relieved breath, they didn't have to know that he had never cracked a BIOS password before. His father allowed him that feeling for only a few moments.

"For your punishment, Gohan, no television for a week."

' _That's nothing, I don't really watch it anyway._ ' He looked sad as he nodded in understanding. "Can I still help Vegeta-tousan on the case?"

"I'll turn a blind eye to your illegal computer activities until this is over," he patted him on the shoulder and went into the kitchen for dinner.

***

He had a nightmare that left him sweating and terrified upon awakening. Gohan was torn between trying to go back to sleep and crawling into bed with his father. He hadn't done that in over nine years but the dream left him feeling uneasy

They had come into his home while he was sleeping and woke him up with their chanting.  _"Take the fairy, take the fairy."_  they shouted over and over again. There was a large group of them; kids and teachers from the schools he had gone to, distant relatives, and strangers. Two people, whose faces he could not see, pulled him from his bed and tied both a rope around his wrists and a blindfold over his eyes. Then all was a confused blur of darkness as they led him someplace far away from his home.

The scene had changed to one of a courtroom, similar to those he had seen on ancient episodes of The Practice. A judge sat on the bench in flowing black robes whose face was obscured by deep shadow.

Next to him, behind a large wooden table, was Colby who just happened to be his attorney. The blond boy smiled at him in a way made Gohan think that everything was going to be just fine. When he looked over to see the prosecuting attorney his heart immediately sank.

It was Ashida.

He sat at the table with three of his friends, head held high. It was pretty clear to Gohan that he knew the case like the back of his own hand. But just what was he on trial for, exactly?

"Prosecutor, you may call your first witness," the judge announced.

Videl came forward and after she was sworn in, answered all of Ashida's questions with a smile on her face. What he asked made Gohan's stomach tie up in knots. "Did you ever notice that he was a fairy? Did you see any boys go in and out of his house on a regular basis?" He knew, then, what crime he was being tried for.

The crime of being gay.

"I object to this entire thing!" he shouted. "How can you hold me accountable for something I can't control?"

"Order, order!" The judge commanded. "Or I shall hold the defendant in contempt."

Gohan sat down grumbling, not happy the least bit.

"I don't think we can win this," Colby whispered. "They have more witnesses than we do."

"How many do we have?"

"None," he sighed. "How can you prove that you're not gay without the results of a DNA test? I have prepared many questions that hopefully explain why your sexual orientation is only a small part of who you are."

The rest of the case blinked by and soon the jurors were filing back into the room. The foreman stood up to say the verdict and Gohan was shocked to his very soul to realize that it was his mother.

"We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of being a disgusting homosexual."

The judge rapped his gavel onto the table a few times and motioned to the man standing beside the bench. "Baliff," he said as the shadows dissipated. "Take him away." The judge was Aizawa.

Colby reached out for him as the officer led him away, hands falling short of their goal. Gohan cried as he stretched out as far as he could toward him and was devastated when only their fingertips brushed. The heavy doors of the courtroom shut with an echo throughout the empty hall and suddenly he was outside and it was night.

He wiggled and squirmed to free himself once he realized that he was tied to a very tall stake in the ground. There were piles of wood and newspaper all around him and the people of the crowd were mere shadows in the distance. Gohan wondered why there was something under his feet other than just plain wood for a moment before he caught sight of a headline for one front page article.

"Homosexual Boy Beaten To Death" it read and he realized that all the newspapers featured hate crimes against a gay or bi-sexual person. ' _How ironic,_ ' he thought. ' _for my death fire to be lit from articles printed for the sole purpose of informing the public of what's wrong and evil._ '

Colby stepped forward from the people, his face twisted into something Gohan had never seen before. He held a torch in one hand and a bible in the other. Tears silently began to slide down his face as his heart quietly wept for his friend's lost soul. It had broken after enduring the ultimate betrayal even as his mind insisted that Colby would never hurt him that way. Eventually the voice went silent and all he was left with was the pain.

The boy tossed the torch onto the pile, igniting the kindling beneath him. The hot flames flared up instantly and he felt them touch his bare arms in a distant sort of way. His mind was turning within, blocking himself from the reaction of the crowd and the reaction of his body to the intense pain. In a small corner of his mind he saw his father, his mother, and Vegeta standing at the forefront feeding the fire. The flames rose higher and higher until he could not longer see the people beyond.

That was when he had woken up.

After three minutes of staring blankly at the ceiling, he finally got up and wandered down the hall to his father and Vegeta's bedroom. They probably wouldn't mind; at least he *hoped* that they didn't. He really needed someone to comfort him, someone to hold him and tell him that everything was fine even though he knew that it wasn't. The small lie would help ease his mind and carry him off into a deep, restful slumber.

For a moment he just watched them sleep, Vegeta lying on his side facing the doorway with his father spooning him. The love they obviously shared always made him smile and think wistfully of some day in the far-off future when he would have someone to care about who felt the same way in return.

He crouched beside the bed and shook Vegeta's shoulder. "Please, wake up. I need you guys." One dark eye partially opened and took in the distressed figure before it. The other eye quickly followed.

"What's wrong, Gohan?" he asked while waking Goku. "Is everything alright?"

The private promise to stay composed and adult fled his mind as he just leaned on the edge of the bed and sobbed. Vegeta lifted him up onto the bed between Goku and himself and they tried to calm him enough so that he was coherent.

"Did you have a nightmare?" Goku asked gently while rubbing his back. "Sometimes it feels better to explain it to someone else."

Gohan sniffed and wiped his eyes. "I don't want them to come for me in the night, Tousan. Will you guys protect me from them? Please?"

"Who would come here for you?" Vegeta asked. "Why would anyone harm you?"

"The homophobes put me on trial for being gay and burned me alive after I was convicted." A fresh round of tears began as he remembered the fear. "I don't want to die. There's still a lot I haven't done yet."

Both Goku and Vegeta were inexperienced at soothing frightened children but did the best that they could. Gohan stretched out between them and finally felt safe enough to sleep again.

And there were no more dreams.


	4. A Not-So-Lucky Break

Gohan's mind was preoccupied the entire walk to school, coming up with questions to be answered and exuses to be made. He wouldn't apologize, not now or ever, because there was absolutely nothing he had to be sorry for. A slight smile crossed his face before he went through the wrought iron school gates.

"I want to help you," Yuji said as soon as both feet were on the grounds. He had been leaning against the brick column by the entrance and startled Gohan with his sudden speech. "We all do."

"Who's "we"? The Society?"

He nodded. "Hai. We take care of our own."

"You're dividing everyone into groups, Yuji. This was how the entire thing began. It's not the recusants versus the conformists, "us" against "them". We're all here together so we should make the world a better place together."

Yuji gave him a sad smile. "Ideals look wonderful on paper and sound great in spoken form but the fact is, they never work out in real life. It has always been "us" against "them" and so shall it remain forever."

"Gohan!" Videl shouted while jumping around and waving her arms from the steps. He didn't have any clue why she was doing all that and apparently neither did anyone else. She didn't wait for them to join her but instead ran over and began to speak rapidly about something.

"Take breaths between your words," Yuji advised. She glared at him but did make an effort to slow down her speech.

"I have a friend named Satomi," she started over. "She's very close to me and I know everything about her family."

Videl was interrupted by an impatient Yuji. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"I'm getting to the point! Anyway, she told me once that her father was an evil man. I didn't really believe her at the time because all kids generally disagree with their parents but Satomi is right." She pulled a crumpled flyer from her backpack. "This is for a local group of bakas who get together once a week and discuss how immoral and wrong everyone else is. Their main opposition is ERGAL; the Equal Rights for Gays and Lesbians group."

Gohan could, at last, see how her story was relevant to his problem. Sort of. "Aizawa-sensei was a homophobe, Videl."

She smiled, pleased with what she had uncovered. "He was also a member of CAMI or Citizens Against the Morally Incorrect. The two groups have had three confrontations that nearly came to bloodshed only last week. He was present at all three."

"Good job!" Yuji said with a grin. "I knew you could do it!"

"Shut up, Harada." She went off with one last smile to Gohan.

"When you divide people into "us" and "them" that's what you get," Gohan said. "Only hatred and violence. Why do people do it in the first place?"

Neither boy could answer that question so nothing was said.

***

Gohan went to the library during gym to use the computers. They weren't as fast as his own at home but they were still useable. After making sure that the librarian was as far away as possible, he went straight to where the city's records were kept and entered the archives very easily.

"Aizawa," he said with the barest of sound. "First name: Akira."

The computer began to work and after thirty seconds the results were posted.

> _Akira Aizawa, born July 19, 1966, single. No known medical data. No known financial data. No known criminal record._

"Must have been a pretty large fee to have someone alter his records." He dug deeper and came up with some of the hidden data.

> _Three contributions to CAMI in the amounts of ¥500,000; ¥100,000; and ¥250,000. One-hundred-three weekly deposits of ¥101,045 from September 13, 2007 to August 29, 2009. One-hundred-three weekly withdraws of ¥21,652. One electronic transfer to Unknown for ¥43,305. Total available balance: ¥7,048,695._

He requested a trace on ' _unknown_ ' and a name turned up. Joseph Jackson, a California born computer professional, had received a large sum of money for unknown reasons. Gohan would bet a large amount that he was the record alterer.

"Hacking is a federal crime, do you know that?"

Gohan jumped, truly terrified. He hadn't heard anyone come up behind him, he was usually very good about things like that. The first that came to mind was to throw himself at the computer screen hide what he had been doing.

So that's what he did.

Videl sat down next to him, arms full of books. "I'm not a cop, you know."

"Don't scare me like that!" he said as he willed his heart rate back to normal. He returned to his chair and proceeded to track down the address of Mr. Jackson. "I'm going to find this man and interrogate him. Can you make up an excuse for my teachers?"

"Sure, why not? If you're going to go AWOL the least I can do is cover for you." She studied him in silence for a moment. "Be careful Gohan. Please? I don't want you to get hurt."

Her obvious concern made him feel good inside. "I'll try not to. The last thing I want is a repeat visit to the hospital."

She smiled. "Great! I'll see you tomorrow, okay? Bye Gohan!"

He watched her check out her books and leave, wondering at what he was feeling. Didn't he love Colby? Wasn't he supposed to be the one for him?

"Maybe I'm bi," he whispered to himself. "Why does life have to be so confusing?"

***

Public transportation was nothing but a giant hassle. First he had to get on a bus that would take him to the terminal downtown, then he had to transfer to another bus that would take him across town. Of course he then had to walk six blocks to yet another bus that would take him to Mr. Jackson's apartment. It was well before three o'clock so the bus he would have to take from the terminal didn't turn down Hiroshima Boulevard; it went straight instead.

He stood there with the rest of a very large crowd, waiting. There were plenty of small children with their parents, senior citizens, and couples who had no qualms about showing their affection in a public place (both gay and straight) but there were no other kids his age in sight. He seriously hoped no one found that odd and decided to call security. His parents would kill him if they knew he was skipping school.

Gohan was glad to get off the bus when his stop finally came up, he had been squished between a *very* large woman and a cross dressing man in a tight red dress and too much makeup. They both scared him a little but he was really freaked out by the guy. The entire trip he continuously asked him if he wanted some candy.

_"*Never* take candy from a stranger, Gohan." His father had said over and over again when he was a small child. "It's not safe."_

He stuck to it then and he was sticking to it now. Just how naïve did he look?

Joseph Jackson lived in a pretty crappy apartment building for someone who took large payments from customers on the wrong side of the law. The building was in a state of disrepair, probably a fire hazard, and grafiti covered the brown stone walls. A few toddlers were playing on the sidewalk in front of it and received suspicious looks from them as he went by. Gohan had never in his life seen children look that way. Their eyes were dull and lifeless, as if their hearts and souls held no more life within them. He edged around the three of them and went through the broken front door into the dimly lit lobby.

The smell hit him as soon as he stepped over the threshold. It was a combination of dirty floors and stale urine. He held his hand over his nose to block out the odor and climbed the creaking stairs to the second level. Apartment 2E was at the end of the hallway and he passed apartments filled with loud music, shouting, and the loud crying of a child before he reached it.

Gohan raised his hand to knock on the door and realized that it was slightly ajar. It was odd, he knew that, but still he went inside.

"Hello? Jackson-san? Are you in here?" He thought that someone had broken into his apartment, it wasn't like it was difficult to do so. There was no answer and no one in the living room. Gohan decided to take a quick look around to make sure that there was nothing wrong.

There was a light on in a room and he knocked on the door before going inside. Everything looked okay and he turned to exit. That's when he saw the handprint on the wall. It was crimson and several rivulets had slid down the wall to pool onto a small wooden table beneath. Gohan knew beyond a doubt that it was blood and he also knew who it belonged to. That's when he took a good look at the bedroom and saw the large lump underneath the quilt that covered the bed.

He didn't think before he quickly pulled back the bedclothes and it took a while for the horror to sink in.

The.... thing lying on the matress used to be a man once. He knew it deep inside. The corpse had a gaping wound where its abdomen had once been and its eyes and hands were no were to be found. Joseph Jackson had been eviscerated and nearly hacked to pieces.

Gohan backed away slowly, his hands covering his mouth. It was one thing to see murder victims on television or read about them in books but you never truly experience horror until you see the grisly remains in real life.

He ran. It was the only thing he could think of to do at the moment.

The streets passed by without his notice until he found a phone booth four blocks away. He ran into it and closed the door, inserting his money, and dialing Cody's phone number with shaking hands. The phone was on its second ring when he realized that his friend was probably still in school.

"Damn!" he cursed just as the phone was picked up.

"Gohan, is that you? Is everything okay?"

He slid down the glass slowly and collapsed to his knees. "Nothing's okay, Colby. I shouldn't have ran. Now they're going to think I killed him too." He started to sob quietly, not caring who saw. "I'm never going to see you or anybody again because I'm going to be convicted of murder and sent to prison for the rest of my life!"

"Where are you?" He could hear his voice shaking slightly.

"Across the street from the bakery on Grove." He realized that Cody's aunt lived only three blocks away. "I need you, Colby. I'm so scared."

It took him less than five minutes to get there because he ran the entire way. Gohan had regained his composure and was sitting on a bench, staring blankly across the street. Colby sat down next to him and grabbed his hand.

"Can you tell me what happened?" he asked softly, worried about the look on his face. He had sounded so frightened on the phone. Gohan explained what he had discovered at the library and what he saw in the apartment. A shocked expression came over Colby's face and he halted Gohan's clinically detached description of the body. "I'm so sorry you had to see that."

He broke down, he couldn't help it.  "I don't know what to do! My fingerprints are probably all over the place in there!" He raised his head from where it was buried in Colby's shoulder and looked at the phone booth. "Do you think I should call the police and explain things?"

"It won't help." Colby sighed. "They're going to believe forensic evidence over any statement that you make. We can always run away together, they can't get you if you're in another country."

"I'll look guilty if I run." He took a deep breath and went over things in his head. "Jackson-san was killed by the same person who killed Aizawa-sensei. They may have made the murders look different but that's only to throw the cops off the trail."

"C'mon." He pulled Gohan to his feet. "I'm going to take you home." He put his arm around his waist and guided him down the street.

"I can't tell my tousan or Vegeta because they'll worry."

"If you don't tell them then they can't stop you from doing something stupid." He couldn't stand the thought of Gohan being killed because of his dedication to solving a murder that the police could not. "I'll follow you everywhere, Gohan. I'm not going to let you die because of this."

He smiled very slightly. "Arigatou. It means a lot to me that you care."

They didn't have enough money for bus fares and transfers for each of them so they decided to walk. Gohan's home was four miles away but together they could make the time pass by very fast. They talked about school, both the classes and the students, and the world in general. By accident, during a statement about society's expectations, Gohan told Colby about how they treated him at school.

He had no idea that his friend was going to react so violently.

"I'm going to kill all those who touched you in an unfriendly way," he growled. "Those who called you out of your name I'm going just hurt very badly."

"Calm down!" Gohan said, putting his hands on his shoulders. "I'm fine and time has moved on."

Tears gathered in his eyes. "They hurt you. You don't deserve to be hurt, Gohan."

"No one deserves it but nothing is ever going to change."

The trip took them longer than they thought and Vegeta was pulling into the parking lot of their apartment building as they were coming up the sidewalk. He was obviously worried but there was an undercurrent of annoyance there as well.

"You were supposed to pick the boys up from school today, remember?" he said as he sent Trunks and Goten upstairs with the keys. "Goten's sensei called me at work before she left for home."

"It's bad Vegeta-san," Colby told him. He and Gohan explained what had gone on that day as they went up to the apartment and Vegeta couldn't stop himself from hugging his son when he realized how close he could have come to death.

"The murderer could have still been there when you went inside!"

He sat down on the couch and said with a bland expression, "Since they're obviously trying to get me convicted of a high crime I don't see that happening."

Vegeta slowly counted to get his emotions under control. Gohan was probably in shock, that's why he was being so intolerable. "Colby, call Goku. The number's by the phone in the kitchen."

"What's wrong with him?" he asked fearfully.

"Shock," he grabbed a blanket from a closet and forced Gohan to lie down before he covered him with it. "I'm going to do all that I can now but a trip to the hospital has to be avoided."

"I guess I am in shock," Gohan mumbled. "I don't feel anything at all, now." He looked up with a serious expression. "You do know that this can be fatal, don't you?"

"Hai, I do." He kneeled beside him. "You are not going to die."

"You can't be sure. No one can." And with those words he fainted.

Colby and Vegeta panicked until Goku got there and checked him out. The two of them alternated between looking out of a window and checking on Gohan's breathing. After discovering that he was going to be just fine, they were faced with a task that neither wanted to undertake.

Telling Goku about his son's brush with the dead.

He was silent for a moment after they alternated with the details, choosing to think a little before speaking. Goku knew that if he had responded directly after hearing what happened that he would have yelled. "Thank Kami that he's alright."

Vegeta was surprised. "That's all you're going to say?"

Goku stood and went slowly off to his bedroom. "I have more but I think it's best that Colby didn't hear it." The sound of the door shutting was audible and just shy of being considered a slam.

"I'll take you home, Colby. Domo arigatou for seeing him home." He called Trunks and Goten in to watch their sleeping brother.

"Can you promise me that you talk him out of doing anything else dangerous and stupid?" Colby asked, his eyes silently pleading. "If he dies, I die."

He uncharacteristically tried to comfort him by patting his hand. "I understand. Believe me, I understand."


	5. Pain of the Emotional Sort

The lecture had taken over two hours and made him feel appropriately guilty. He knew what he had done was borderline suicidal but he hadn't known of any other way. His name had to be cleared somehow and a thorough investigation was the key.

"*Please* just call me the next time you discover something!" Vegeta pleaded with him. It was so rare for him to do so that Gohan immediately agreed.

"The waiting is hard for us too, Gohan. None of us know if they have enough circumstantial evidence yet for an arrest."

"I don't have a good alibi for yesterday. Videl knew that I was going to see Jackson-san."

A thoughtful look came over Vegeta's face. "How did the body smell?"

Both Goku and Gohan stared at him with incredulity. "Is *now* a good time to ask that question, Vegeta-tousan?"

He nodded. "It'll help clear you if we now how long he was dead before you got there. Now, did the room smell metallic like fresh blood or was it putrid like he'd been there awhile before you arrived?"

Gohan thought back to that awful moment yesterday despite the fact that his mind was shielding him from all the details. It had become a distant thing, as if it had happened years ago instead of just the day before. "It was fresh, I know that for sure. The handprint on the wall hadn't even dried completely yet."

"Damn," he sighed. "This is going to be harder than I thought."

Resurfacing memories made the tears come again. He thought he had moved past the horror and fear onto something more positive. Nearly incoherent, he apologized for his emotion and ran off to his room.

"He's going to need counseling for this. Until he works out his feelings it'll never leave him alone." Goku's fists clenched involuntarily. "Why are they doing this to him? Gohan wouldn't even hurt a fly!"

"I know that and you know that," Vegeta said softly. "But the cops don't. Right now he's the only suspect they have probably. If there are witnesses who saw him leave the apartment then they might have him arrested."

"He's fourteen for Kami's sake! Kids his age shouldn't have a criminal record. He's still a child!"

Vegeta didn't know what to do or say to calm him down. Truthfully it angered him as well but, by nature, he didn't show his emotion. Goku, on the other hand, was an open book. Very rarely was he angry but when the emotion surfaced it was often violent.

He wrapped an arm around his shoulders and held him close. "I promise you, koibito, that I will find those who want to hurt our son and make them pay."

***

Gohan sat in his room, doodling aimlessly on a scrap sheet of paper. His fingers itched to pick up the phone and dial Colby's aunt's house but it had been only a few hours since Vegeta had taken him home. So he decided to take his mind from everything by doing the homework from his morning classes.

The phone rang ten minutes later, startling Gohan from his reading. "Moshi moshi," he said softly as he answered the phone.

"Are you okay, Gohan?" It was Videl and she sounded more than a little worried. "When you didn't come back to school I asked around and no one has seen you since this morning."

He silently debated with himself. How much could he tell her? "Something happened and I had to go home instead. I'm sorry you were worried."

"It was bad, wasn't it? Your voice sounds funny. I'll be over in ten minutes, Gohan. You need someone to-"

"Iie, don't!" He nearly shouted before lowering his voice. "I mean, I'm okay now. You don't have to come over here."

"Swear that I don't. On someone's grave."

He didn't want to do that because he knew he would be lying. But, if he swore on the grave of someone still living it wouldn't be that bad, would it? "I swear on my ojiisan's grave that I'm fine."

There was a pause. "I'll believe you... this time. See you at school tomorrow."

"Alright, ja ne." He hung up feeling even sadder than before. Gohan hated to lie but he couldn't tell her the truth about what happened. Videl didn't need to know horror so soon in her life; no one did.

"Niichan! You're on TV.!" Goten shouted as he ran into Gohan's room. He grabbed his arm and tugged on it, trying to pull him into the living room. On sofa sat Vegeta and Trunks, staring at the screen with wide eyes. Gohan blinked as he saw himself, white-faced and shaking, run from the apartment building and down the street. It was an amateurish film, the picture was shaky and sort of blurred, but you could still identify the person it featured.

"Oh my God," he said quietly as he sat on the edge of the sofa next to Vegeta. "They can indict me, now, and the judge will convict me."

Vegeta wanted to say something, anything, to reassure him but nothing formed in his mind. It would be up to the Tokyo Police Department and the case looked pretty open-and-shut despite the fact that Gohan didn't kill anyone.

An insistent pounding on the front door startled them all. "Police! Open up!"

Gohan jumped up from the sofa and backed away. "They're not taking me. I didn't do anything." His eyes darted around, trying to come up with a way to escape. After making a quick decision, he ran over to the window where the fire escape was, opened it, and took off for the ground below. Vegeta cursed and was about to go after him when a cop kicked in the door.

"We have a warrant for Son Gohan's arrest, sir." One of the cops said in a serious voice. "Are you his father?"

He shook his head, already on his way to the room he shared with Goku. "Iie, I'm not. Let get him for you."

Trunks frowned at the two police officers and looked them over. "Are you two guys bakas?" he asked.

"Excuse me?" the formerly silent cop asked in disbelief. He couldn't believe what he was hearing from a small child.

"You think my niichan killed two guys but he didn't do it."

The tall one holding the warrant crouched down until he was on Trunks' level. "How would you know that?"

"Because he's Gohan," he said simply. "He doesn't even hurt Goten an' me and we drive him crazy."

"Son Goku?" the shorter cop asked as he saw the saiya-jin enter the room. "I'm Officer Okawa and this is Officer Warren. We're here to charge your son with the murders of Aizawa Akira and Jackson Joseph. Where is he?"

Goku, Goten, and Trunks all looked to Vegeta for an answer. "Um, he, um..."

"Gohan ran down the fire 'scape," Goten said helpfully. "He's so scared of going to prison 'cause he didn't do nothin'."

The tall officer pulled a radio out of his waistband. "Dispatch, I need an APB out on Son Gohan. He's escaped into the city."

"Right away, Officer Warren. You will be contacted when we find him."

Goku forced himself to stay calm and took a seat on the sofa. "Explain to me why my son is being charged with murder and don't spare any details." He silently hoped that he could give Gohan enough time to hide until they could work everything out. They needed more time to find those who wished to frame him and every second counted.

***

The sun was setting, throwing deep golden light over the reflective glass windows of the tall buildings. Gohan ran until his breath came in gasps and his chest was burning, stopping to lean against the side of a building. He didn't know where he could go to escape from the police other than to Africa and his ojiisan but he had no money for a plane ticket.

' _Why is this happening to me?_ ' That was a question he had been asking himself over and over again ever since the day Principal Aizawa had been murdered and the blame was placed unfairly upon him. Someone wanted him punished, that much was clear, but he didn't have any idea who he had angered.

"I can't stop them from doing this to me," he whispered into the coming night, "but I can make the pain go away."

He used what little money he had left in his pocket to buy a bottle of cheap sleeping pills and a container of water from the nearest drug store. His mind was protesting and his heart was heavy, but he had no other solution.

Gohan walked across the city to the ocean and found a quiet, deserted spot on the beach. Darkness had fallen completely and he stood barefoot near the water with a resolute expression, pausing a minute to apologize.

"I know this will hurt all of you but I don't have a choice. I will miss you all." He looked upwards to the sky, and took its peacefulness as consent. He swallowed the pills two at a time and didn't stop until they were all gone. After allowing time for the medication to kick in, he walked into the cold water and let it carry him away.

***

Colby sat straight up in bed, sweating and terrified. He had no idea why he was so afraid but something strong was pulling him in the direction of the Pacific Ocean. Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he jammed his feet into his nearest pair of shoes and ran downstairs to the street.

' _Something's wrong with Gohan. Something bad._ '

The pavement sped underneath his feet as he ran, arms pumping and eyes wide with fear. He had seen the news report with his aunt earlier that evening and remembered the state Gohan had been in earlier that day. They had no right to try and charge him, it was obvious he had been frightened. Why would a murderer have such a panicked look on his face?

The sound of the waves crashing against the shore, something that usually comforted him, was the first thing that alerted Colby to the closeness of the ocean. He looked around quickly and, after not seeing anything, continued on in the direction his heart was taking him.

He spotted a pair of shoes lying on the sand and identified them as the very same pair that Gohan had been wearing that afternoon. Heart leaping into his throat, he ran to the water and swam out.

"Gohan! Where are you?!" he called as he swam out into the dark, icy cold water. Shivering with more than just cold, he held his breath and dove down deep. There was very little light to aid him in his search but still he would not give up.

The third time he surfaced for air, he saw something white floating nearby. He hoped and prayed to God that it was Gohan and that he was still alive.

"Oh God, oh God," he said over again as he turned the still body over. Gohan's face was blue-tinged and his chest was not moving underneath his white tee-shirt. With great strength that he didn't know he possessed, Colby pulled him over to the shore and packed the sun-heated sand around his body to keep him warm and proceeded to give him CPR.

After a minute of this there was still no movement. Hot tears trickled down his face and a nearly unbearable wave of pain washed over him. "You can't die! Please don't die..."

The boy underneath him gasped suddenly and Colby quickly rolled him over onto his side as he begun to cough violently. He threw up both the salt water and the pills he had taken and collapsed back onto the sand with a throbbing headache.

"I'm so glad you're alive!" he said sincerely as he threw his arms around the still chilled boy and sobbed. "I felt you go into the water and I ran as fast as I could down here."

Gohan kissed his cheek, feeling awful for making Colby panic. "I couldn't find any other way. The police were over at my place earlier."

"I knew they probably were because I saw the video on the news. My aunt wouldn't let me call you, though." He held him close. "Everything will be fine. I won't let anything happen to you."

He tried so hard to believe his words but he was only one teenager versus the entire government. "Unless I get the world's best lawyer, I'm just screwed."

They rested there for a little while longer until Gohan was able to walk, and went back to Colby's house to call his father.

***

The after-hours pediatric waiting room of the nearest hospital was crowded with screaming, crying children of all sorts. Gohan had never hated being under eighteen as much as he did at that moment. His head was pounding from all of the noise and he buried it into the shoulder of Colby, who had refused to stay home and wait for a phone call.

The older blond boy was glaring daggers at the parents who couldn't calm down their kids. Couldn't they see that there were miserable people in the waiting room? That was what the emergency room was for, anyway, injured and ill people.

"We're going out into the hallway," Colby shouted over the voices to Goku. "He can't take much more of this and neither can I."

He nodded, feeling an impending headache himself. "I'll come out there and get you when they call his name."

Down the hall there was a small waiting room that was blissfully silent. The few people that were sitting inside were all older adults. A man looked up as if expecting them to disturb the peace but was pleasantly surprised when it didn't happen.

"They might make you stay here overnight for observation because you tried to," his words halted, not able to come out around the lump in his throat. He tried again. "Because you tried to-"

"Because I tried to commit suicide." His tone was neutral, idyllic even. The boy beside him froze and turned slowly to stare into his eyes.

"You wouldn't try it again, would you? I thought our love meant more than you throwing your life away when things get tough." He rubbed his back gently and it only served to make Gohan feel worse.

He couldn't look at him, the guilt was both in his eyes and probably written all over his face. "It was a hastily made decision brought on by extreme pressure and emotional distress."

"Aren't all suicides brought on by that?"

"Hai. Iie. Maybe. I don't know!" He groaned and let his head fall forward into his hands. "My mind was -- is -- screwed up. Once the police figure out that I'm still around, I'm going straight to a holding cell until my trial."

He snorted. "I doubt it. That's what bail is for, Gohan."

"Yeah, I guess so." He still wasn't convinced. The chances that a suspected murderer received bail were slim at best.

It took a full hour for him to be called because several critical cases had come in. They were all tired and hungry by this time and the lengthy wait had done nothing to improve the patient's mood.

"Can you come in there with me?" he asked Colby, suddenly afraid to face things alone. He knew that his father was more than willing to accompany him but, at fourteen, he was too embarrassed to let him.

He kissed him softly on the cheek in full view of everyone else. "Of course I can. What are soul mates for?"

***

"You can't hunt them down and kill them all," Vegeta said and, for once, he was the rational one. Goku was going through his koibito's collection of armaments, and was placing the small, not-very-powerful ones onto the floor.

"Maybe not," he said as he loaded a 10mm handgun, "but I can sure as hell try."

He grabbed his arm and took the gun away. "You wouldn't just go to prison for this, you'll be executed. What about Goten and Trunks? What if Gohan isn't convicted? Have you thought about them... or me?"

"They did more than hurt our son," he said angrily, "they forced him to hurt himself. I can't wait for the justice system to do its job, something has to be done *now*."

"Killing people won't solve the problem. It'll only make it worse."

He took his hands and pleaded. "Please let me do *something* about this! I can't sit by and wait."

Vegeta knew exactly what he could find to preoccupy Goku. "I'm going to get Aizawa's cell phone records and check all incoming and outgoing calls. I doubt he was stupid enough to use his home phone but we need to check that as well."

"All I have to do is call the telephone company?"

"That's not your job, koi." He handed him the gun. "I want you to tail someone for me..."


	6. The Assassination Attempt

Yonagi Ebezo was a slight, balding man who wore glasses and owned an antique shop in downtown Tokyo. He was organized and neat in everything that he did to the point of being anal retentive and always offered free candy to children.

At precisely eight a.m. he started off for his shop after eating a bagel and orange juice breakfast. Before even flipping cardboard sign on the door over to 'open', he took a broom and swept the sidewalk.

"Ohayo, Yonagi-san!" The older woman who worked down the street at a small grocery always stopped briefly to bid him a good morning. In fact, most of the shop owners and employees had a kind word or two for him. He was beloved among very many people.

Based on his grandfatherly exterior, hardly anyone was aware that he was the president of CAMI let alone believed it.

Another man came up the street around nine o'clock in a slow, leisurely gait that didn't fool anyone. All those who spotted his large figure immediately knew that he didn't belong there. The man stopped in front of Yonagi Antiques and went inside, careful to keep his bulky frame from accidentally striking something fragile and priceless.

"Yonagi-sama, did ya see the news last night? We fixed 'im good!" He stopped in the middle of the shop and searched for his leader. "Where are ya, Yonagi-sama?"

The small man frowned and pushed his glasses up higher onto his nose as he exited the back storage room. "Quiet down for once in your life," he said sternly. "What if there were other people around?"

He looked down at his feet, successfully cowed by Yonagi's tone of voice. "Gomen nasai."

"To answer you question, I did happen to see the news last night." He began to walk around the room, making sure that the merchandise was neat and orderly. "The boy was nearly frightened to death."

The man's large face twisted in thought. "Honachi-sama told me to give ya a message. He said, 'The target tried to off himself after the news aired the story.' Honachi-sama told me to ask ya a question after tellin' ya the message. He wants to know if he should let him kill himself or if he should do it for him."

Yonagi didn't have to even think about his answer. "Tell Honachi to get some men on it. I want him dead in the worse possible way. If the Son boy is allowed to commit suicide then he will gain sympathy from many people. If he is murdered, exposed like the sinner he is, then others of his kind will be also be targeted. Then the righteous ones all over the world will rise up and rid our planet of the freaks." One look at the message runner told Yonagi that his words were wasted. "Just tell Honachi to kill him and make it look good."

"Right away, Yonagi-sama," his head bobbed up and down quickly. "Why did ya pick the boy, anyway? What did he do to ya?"

Eyes gleaming with thinly veiled madness, he went back to tidying his shop. "Why, he was born, Gidayu, and fourteen years later we discovered that he was perverted." The bell tinkled as the large man left his shop and Yonagi went to his computer. "I must find your home address, yes I must. Not one of them will be left alive."

***

"Videl!" Satomi, a pretty blonde girl of fifteen called out. It was after school and no one had seen hide nor hair of Gohan the entire day. "Do you know where Gohan-kun is? I'm worried about him."

At the sound of his name, a fresh round of tears fell from Videl's already red and puffy eyes. "He-he..."

"Nani? What did Gohan do?"

"He tried to kill himself last night!" she wailed, a mournful sound that caused many of the birds and small animals in the vicinity to flee. People looked at her as she fell to her knees on the sidewalk, but continued on once they saw she had a friend to help her. Eyes wide, Satomi pulled her back upward.

"On Kami in Heaven!" she gasped as she pulled out her cell phone. "I have to call someone but who will listen to me?"

It was now Videl's turn to ask questions. Face still wet, she guided her friend to the nearest bench. "What's going on? I know that it's serious but *how* serious?"

"This morning I heard my father talking something over with a man named Gidayu. He sent him to see someone that he called "the boss". To make a long story short, my otousan sent one of his assassins after poor Gohan! Who can I call, Videl? Who can I call?"

Taking the phone from her she pulled a number from her purse. "Gohan's other tousan is a private investigator and I was given his number if I found out something important. *Nothing* is more important that this."

"Ouji Investigations, Vegeta speaking." The voice sounded gruff and, despite the gravity of the situation, was a little put off.

"Um, Vegeta-san? This is Videl Satan, Gohan's friend. Is anyone at home with him right now?"

His voiced sounded puzzled. "Well, iie. Goku's at the hospital and I'm at the office. Do you think someone should be there with him? It was told by the doctor that the medicine should make him sleep most of the day."

"There's no time to explain but you need to get there as soon as you can! They're coming for him!"

"Who's coming? Who is it?" he asked but the girl had already hung up. Cursing, Vegeta grabbed his keys and hit the street.

***

The man in black moved silently up the outdoor staircase, a variety of weapons hidden on his body. Time was going to be taken very leisurely once he'd broken into the apartment for he knew that no one would be around to hear the boy's screams.

He had a passion for killing, a thirst that needed to be continually slaked by the blood of others. If you wanted the deed done quickly and cleanly then he wasn't the one for the job. This assassin killed with the ferociousness of a psychopath and the speed of a turtle. ' _Why rush through things,_ ' he wondered to himself, ' _if you received more pleasure by taking your time?_ '

The second door on the left led to the boy's bedroom and paused before this for just a moment. There was nary a sound from behind the door though it was early afternoon and that made him wary. Did his target know he was coming and waiting silently and patiently to attack him once he went inside? The unknown danger made a thrill run through the assassin's body and he swung the door open wide to greet his enemy.

No one was waiting to attack him but there was a teenage boy lying in the bed. A bottle of pills sat next to him on the nightstand and for one brief moment, the assassin feared that he had succeeded in committing suicide after all.

Then his chest moved with the inhalation of breath and the man was relieved he hadn't come too late.

"Open your eyes little boy." He kneeled next to the bed and breathed into Gohan's ear. "Open your eyes."

He stirred slightly and rolled away from the voice. "Tousan," he mumbled in a voice slurred with both sleep and medication, "five more minutes please. I don't wan' get up for school yet."

"Open your eyes!" he said while shaking him. "Do it now!"

Gohan's body stiffened as his subconscious tried frantically to place the voice. It wasn't his father or Vegeta or anyone else that he knew. His eyes snapped open and widened when he stared into the empty gray eyes of the assassin, but chose to roll away from the bed instead of screaming. ' _Have to get away..._ ' He knew why the man was there. Someone was screwing with him again. The thought made him intensely angry. Why were they doing this? "No," he said softly with a shake of his head.

The assassin blinked at him. "What did you just say?"

"I said NO! I won't let you people do this to me anymore!" His fists clenched at his sides and he glared across his bed at the man. "Either you leave me alone or I'll have to do something that I'll probably regret later on."

That was when the knife was pulled on him. It was nearly thirteen inches of highly polished metal that gleamed softly in the sunlight coming from his window. Gohan gulped and backed away slowly, mouthing the words 'oh shit' when he realized that he had no idea what to do next.

Deciding to run and attempt to escape the apartment, Gohan took off for the short hallway. An insistent pounding made itself known at the front door along with terrified sounding female voices. He recognized them as Videl and Satomi, two people who were fully aware of the hate organization that was trying to destroy him from the inside out. He struggled to undo the locks on the door, the assassin had redone them to make things look normal, and was partially over the threshold when the man lunged at him and wrapped his arms around his legs. Gohan went down hard, smashing his nose on the rough concrete, and the two girls hopped backward in surprise.

"Oh my God!" Videl gasped as she looked behind him to the darkly dressed man who wielded a knife long enough to qualify for a short sword. She brought out her cell phone and dialed nine-one-one as Satomi and Gohan grappled with the man.

"I won't let you brats get me arrested!" he screamed, lashing out with his right hand and catching Satomi on the side of the head. She uttered a soft sound and fell to the ground heavily. Gohan saw red. It was one thing to mess with him, but dragging his friends into it was completely unacceptable. He felt coldness settle over him, heavy like a winter coat, and began to walk slowly towards the assassin.

"Gohan..." Videl whispered but there was no answer. He was beyond hearing, his mind focused on only one thing: stopping a sociopath.

He didn't know what happened. One moment he was glaring at the figure before him, the next his hands were wrapped around his throat. He stared at him through a golden haze as the light began to fade from the struggling man's eyes, only vaguely aware that stronger hands were pulling him away. Gohan fought for a moment, trying to complete the job that he had begun, before he came back to himself.

"Vegeta-tousan," he said softly as he stared at his hands. "I don't know who I am anymore."

A warm hug made him feel just a little bit better. Vegeta crouched next to the very still assassin, removing the mask from his face to discover his identity. He was an older man whose black hair was graying at the temples. There were crow's feet around his eyes and creases around his mouth, both indicating that he was usually a jovial man. Videl recognized him and her stomach turned.

"He's Satomi's father," she said softly. "I never knew he was this bad."

Vegeta merely frowned and stood. "Everyone has the capacity for evil inside of them. Whether you act on it or not is an entirely different story."

After the assassin was tied up and the still unconscious Satomi was laid out upon the couch, Gohan developed a pounding headache that just wouldn't go away. In addition, Videl had been staring at him almost from the moment Vegeta had pulled him away from Yamashira-san and it was beginning to make him uncomfortable.

Something in the hall mirror caught his eye and he froze in mid-step. Turning slowly, he stared at himself and ran slightly trembling fingers over his face and his hair. "Holy shit!"

That seemed to be the cue for Videl to ask questions. "What's wrong with him, Vegeta-san?" she whispered. Gohan still heard her. "I've never seen anything like it!"

"It's a Saiya-jin thing. There's a legend among my people, one about a golden warrior who killed off entire races and no one was able to stop him. He was defeated eventually by himself, getting caught in the energy of a blast that had also blown up many planets." He looked up to find his son in the living room entryway, eyes wide with disbelief. "You aren't uncontrollable, obviously. Your nature is exactly the opposite from most other Saiya-jin so that may be what's keeping you from being a sociopath."

"Am I going to look like this all of the time?" he asked, still a little stunned by his reflection in the mirror. "I see how Videl looks at me. It's like I'm some kind of freak."

Vegeta glared at the girl and she felt shame for her actions. "Take a deep breath and let everything go. The emotion, the tension, the power -- everything. You should feel yourself changing and can go take a look in the mirror if you want to. Goku and I are going to have to train you to control your ki or it this power will consume you in the very worst way." The boy nodded and disappeared into his room.

"Does it have a name?" Videl asked curiously. She continuously repeated 'He's still Gohan no matter what.' over and over again in her mind. It was finally starting to sink in.

"My people call it 'Super Saiya-jin'."

The police finally arrived nearly twenty minutes after the time Videl called them, and Satomi had regained consciousness. Her face was very pale as she stared at the familiar figure. Videl tried all that she could to get her mind away from things, but nothing seemed to help.

"You all have to come down to the station to answer a few questions for the record," the shorter of the two cops said as his partner handcuffed Yamashira-san. "Please do so by noon tomorrow."

As Vegeta was closing the door, something stopped it mid-way. "What is going on here? Why were there cops coming out of my home?" Goku entered and looked around. "Did they take Gohan? Did something happen to my son?!"

"Everything's fine now, Goku. To make a potentially long story very short: an assassin came to kill him, they fought, Gohan won. End of story."

"END OF-?!" He consciously lowered his voice. "End of story?!

Satomi's soft voice stopped any further words on Vegeta's part. "Son-san, I can help you figure out who's doing this. If you find Gidayu and follow him, he should lead you to the boss."

Goku sat down next to her. "Who's this Gidayu? How do you know him?"

"My father uses him as a messenger and he's been over to my house for dinner several times. I even think there's a picture of him in our family album." Her eyes pleaded with his. "You can't hurt him, Son-san. Gidayu isn't very bright so I don't think he really understands what he's doing. They're all taking advantage of him."

"Just a pawn," Goku said softly. "I'll do my best not to hurt him. Come on, let me take you girls home."

Vegeta stopped him at the front door, a falsely calm expression on his face. "Try not to get yourself killed," he said lightly. "I've grown rather attached to you."

Goku grasped Vegeta's hand and placed onto his chest. "You hold my heart," he said after a moment. "For you, I would do anything."

Understanding the full import of his words, Vegeta stepped away after only a single kiss. Goku would be coming back to him, of that he had no worries.

***

> _Where did my life go wrong? Just when did it start getting really bad? I think back to the week before school and can barely remember the anticipation I felt at the thought of going to high school for the very first time. So much has happened in such a short period that last week's normalcy feels like a distant dream._
> 
> _When will the pain end? When will I be allowed to live a life free of fear?_

He paused and sighed to himself. Gohan hadn't written in his journal since the night before school began. He'd looked back over that entry and was amazed at how different he sounded. It was as if he were reading the words of a completely different person and, in a way, he was.

> _I'm truly amazed at tousan's reaction to all of this. He's usually so calm and rational about everything, but I guess that doesn't apply when it comes to me. He wants to murder those hurting me and that would make him no better than they are. Why should he hurt people to show that hurting people is wrong?_
> 
> _The sun is breaking through the dark clouds and I see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Slowly, the darkness is fading. In the meantime, I will light a candle to keep it away.  
> _

The phone rang and Gohan knew instantly who it was without looking at the caller-id. "Moshi moshi, Colby."

"Is today a better day than yesterday?" he asked.

"Hai and iie. Tousan's got a good lead, but I almost got murdered." Gohan smiled suddenly. "That's why you called."

Colby sighed. "It was the second most frightening thing I've ever felt. You were so scared and I couldn't do anything to help. Then I felt nothing, but a low level of anxiety so I knew that you had to be okay."

Gohan was puzzled by his earlier statement. "What do you mean by 'second most frightening'."

"The night you almost killed yourself I felt a sense of despair that brought tears to my eyes. I was terrified of what you would do." Gohan winced at the attempt of levity in his speech. "Don't worry about it. It's in the past."

"Colby, I apologize for putting you through that. I should have-"

"Don't worry about it," the blond boy repeated. "It's in the past."

They talked for a little while longer until Gohan heard the front door close and the voices of his little brothers. He went into the living room and hugged his father as hard as he could.

"It's all taken care of," Goku said comfortingly. "They won't be bothering you any more."

Vaguely, Gohan supposed that he should be questioning the choice of words, but it suddenly occurred to him that he didn't really care.


	7. One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Vegeta wasn't usually one to worry. He lived his life by one simple rule, allowing the die to fall where they may. On that September evening, however, one person caused his rule to be thrown out of the window.

"What did you do?" he asked Goku as the younger man started to whistle. Twenty minutes before he had been so furious at CAMI and now he was practically cheerful. Something wasn't right... or maybe it was just altered.

Goku smiled briefly at him as he chopped up vegetables for dinner. "Nothing that didn't need to be done."

Vegeta frowned at his answer. "What do you mean by that?"

"Exactly what I said. As I told Gohan before, I took care of things. Nothing else will happen."

"Unless you chopped the responsible ones up into tiny pieces and dumped the bodies into the ocean for the sharks to devour, you can't guarantee that." Vegeta said this casually, but frowned even harden when he saw the look on Goku's face. "Please tell me you didn't kill them."

The knife moved slightly faster. "Tell me that they didn't deserve it."

A brief silence, then, "You killed them?!" Vegeta's voice conveyed the disbelief he felt in that one sentence. Even when Goku was at his angriest, Vegeta felt that there was a greater chance of the sun not rising in the morning than his koibito taking a life. "You're not capable of murder."

"Who am I kidding?" The sharp thumps of the steel blade against the wooden cutting board became even louder. "You're right, Vegeta. I couldn't kill them."

Vegeta reached out and caught his wrist. "Stop before you cut off a finger." He took the knife away and held his hand. "I had no doubt of that, koi. Nothing short of your children's deaths would cause you to kill another."

"Don't forget *your* death," Goku said softly. "There would be no place on Chikyuu good enough to hide your murderer."

He accepted it without a protest. "Knowing this, I ask my question again. What did you do?"

"I called Tenshinhan."

Vegeta shuddered involuntarily. Tenshinhan had to be the most frightening man he'd ever met. The sights and sounds witnessed in his underground dungeon were enough to give even the bravest man nightmares. "How can you stand it?" he asked. He never had before. Goku was fine in the dungeon, a little pale but fine. How could such a softhearted man withstand the sounds let alone the images?

"It's a long story that I'm sure you don't want to hear." He smiled shakily and waved his hand as if clearing the negativity from the air. "Ten and I are old friends."

Vegeta waited, a patient expression on his face. Eventually, Goku sighed and continued his story.

"It was my first year in college and I was majoring in the culinary arts. I used to watch  _Iron Chef_  a lot as a kid and it was my dream to earn the title. Anyway, I did martial arts in school and had a natural talent that earned me a full scholarship. There was a tournament near the middle of my freshmen year that forever altered my life."

_  
He'd won the title of champion and made more than a few enemies. His final opponent, a man named Tenshinhan, had taken his defeat a lot easier than the others. They'd shook hands afterward and Goku felt no hostility from the older man._

_"It was my pleasure to lose to someone as great as you," Ten had said and Goku blushed modestly._

_"Iie," he said, "I owe my win to luck."_

_Ten frowned. "Many martial artists harm themselves by underestimating their talent. It would be a tragic loss if you became one of them."_

_They parted ways to change clothes and that was when the trouble began. As Goku was slipping on his shoes he was jumped by at least six guys, all angry participants of the tournament. He tried to defend himself, but was caught off-guard from the very beginning. They dragged him off to an unknown location and kept him locked in a small, oppressively dark room, a blindfold over his eyes and earplugs inside his ears. It was sensory deprivation at its finest._

_Hours passed in the silent darkness, each one losing its sense of time. Goku had no idea how long he'd been there and was tired from trying to free himself from the strong bonds. So he gave up the struggle and lied upon the cold floor in abject misery._

_In what seemed to be years, he felt the air currents shift beside him. Rolling away as best he could, Goku put as much distance between himself and the unknown intruder as possible. It didn't get any closer and he felt that he was safe -- for the time being, anyway._

_"I won't hurt you," the voice whispered. "In just a moment you'll be free." In the darkness the person did not realize that Goku could not hear him. The man kneeled and reached towards him, only to encounter a fierce struggle from the captive. They wrestled for a moment until the man found the earplugs and removed them. "Goku, it's me!"_

_The voice froze him. "Tenshinhan?" he whispered, deeply grateful for the rescue attempt. In the same tone he asked, "What the hell are you doing here? Are you insane?"_

_"You're my friend," he said as he removed the blindfold and the rope. "I knew something was off when you didn't emerge from the locker room so I went looking for you. Those cowards took you halfway across town and into an abandoned building. I observed for few hours and then came in."_

_Goku stretched out with a groan and the feeling returned to his body in a painful rush of prickling needles. For a moment he lay in relieved silence, then the two men heard a key in the door._

_Ten sighed. "Here we go, then. Have to give them the customary warning, first." He said the last bit as if he, himself, needed reminding. The door opened without a sound and he counted three people, most likely men. "Hello there," he greeted. "I must warn you that I'm trained to kill when threatened."_

_The lights suddenly flared to life, momentarily blinding the former prisoner and his rescuer. One of the men stepped forward and they heard a low laugh._

_"You're not in a position to be threatening anyone," he sneered before the group charged them. Hearing the commotion, four more joined their friends with pitted seven thugs against Goku and Ten._

_The younger man knocked two of them unconscious and spent the next two minutes watching his new friend beat the others into submission. Three of them were down with several broken bones, one most likely had a concussion, and the last one, by the looks of the angle of his head, probably wouldn't ever move again. Goku found himself staring at the dead man, wondering how anyone could murder another human being for any reason._

_"You're okay, right?" Ten asked as he wiped his bloody fist on one man's shirt. Of course it hadn't been any of his blood, one thug's nose had erupted like a geyser when it fist connected with it._

_Shaking his head, he pointed at the man with the broken neck. "He's dead."_

_"Hai, I know," Ten answered. "I meant to only incapacitate him, but oh well."_

_"Oh well?!" Goku's voice was high-pitched with disbelief and shock. "How can you say that? You've just killed a man!"_

_He looked at him with a mixed expression of pity and understanding. "When it comes down to life or death you often have to make quick decisions." Ten looked down upon the man's body. "I have no regrets."_

_The two of them left the building and never spoke of that night again.  
_

"He dropped out of college soon after that and joined Harano-oui's court. I didn't hear from him for a few years, but he eventually contacted me and told me of his appointment. I admit that I was shocked, at first, then I realized that it called to his soul." Goku shook his head. "Anyway, I accepted his choice and he invited me to call him whenever I required his services."

"I see," said Vegeta and he did.

***

The next day Gohan went to school and wished that he hadn't. Videl, Satomi, and the members of the YRS were the only students who didn't cast thinly-veiled looks in his direction. Apparently most of the local news stations aired reports about the recent arrest of Yamashira-san. His name had been mentioned several times and most of Tokyo now knew a vast majority of his personal business.

"It's not that bad, believe me," Videl said at lunch that afternoon. "Could be worse."

Gohan looked at her with disbelief. "How can it be worse? People either look at me like I'm either a criminal, a pervert, or a weird combination of the two."

She smiled. "No one's going to bother you because they saw Yamashira-san state on camera that you kicked his ass."

"I didn't mean to," his voice was small. No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't believe he nearly killed a man. If Vegeta hadn't been there.... Well, it was best not to think about it. "The only good thing that's come from all of this is that they've disbanded CAMI."

"Isn't the leader still out there somewhere?" Videl asked. "I haven't heard of an arrest."

Satomi nodded. "They rounded up everyone except a man named Yonagi Ebezo. Otousan's keeping kaasan informed of everything. The trial is next month, but I don't think I'm going to be there."

"He's your otousan, Satomi," Gohan said. "You should go because you love him."

"How can I love a man who tried to hurt someone because of who they are?" she asked. "How can I love a man who tried to kill one of my friends?" She lowered her face to her hands. "It wouldn't hurt so bad if I didn't love him. Why did he do this?"

Videl just looked at her, unable to comfort her friend. Instead Gohan put his arm around her and let her cry. "People hate for many reasons, Satomi. Knowing that your father has the capacity for it doesn't erase all of the good memories you have. If he didn't have any goodness inside, you wouldn't have any love for him."

She nodded, her head buried in his shoulder. "How can you even look to me knowing what my tousan did?"

"Listen to me, you had nothing at all to do with this. It might take some time to believe this, but it's the truth."

The PA on the cafeteria wall suddenly crackled to life. "Son Gohan, please come to the main office. Son Gohan, please come to the main office."

"This can't be anything good," he muttered to himself. Louder, he said, "I'll see you guys later."

Turns out he had a phone call. The only two people with a reason to call him were his father and Vegeta, but only when it was an emergency. Who else could it be? As if the thoughts were a clue, he started feeling a moderate sense of depression coming from his connection with Colby.

"Gohan, I have something to tell you." No panic filled Colby's voice, but the resignation in it made Gohan's stomach clench and his heart beat faster.

"It's bad news, isn't it?" Gohan moved away from the listening secretaries. "You don't sound very good."

"Mariko-obasan saw the news yesterday night and basically put two and two together. She knows about our friendship, Gohan."

Gohan couldn't understand where he was going with this. "I'm not following you."

"She's shipping me off to my uncle in Italy who's gonna put me in a boarding school!" His voice broke on the last few words. "I probably won't ever see you again so I called to say goodbye."

"Goodbye...?" Gohan was having a hard time processing his words. "You're moving to Italy."

"I'll write you if I can, okay? Sayonara, Gohan. Ai shiteru."

"Wait!" Gohan shouted into the phone as he brain began to function again, forgetting where he was. "Wait a minute!" There was a female voice shouting in the background and then all was silent.

Gohan felt numb all over. Colby's words felt worse than anything he'd ever experienced before, even worse than the beating by the hands of Ashida. Halfway around the world... ' _That woman separated us,_ ' he fumed silently. Aloud, he said, "I'm leaving."

One of the secretaries raised an eyebrow at him. "Of course you are, it's time for class."

He shook his head. "I'm leaving school. See you whenever."

"Walk out that exit, young man, and you will never return." The assistant principal intervened with a threat he was sure wouldn't work. Sure enough, Gohan merely rolled his eyes and left the office.

At first he thought that he could catch Colby before he left the house, but it wasn't possible. His aunt lived at least fifteen minutes away and that was on foot. With the amount of traffic in Tokyo, that trip would probably take nearly twenty minutes more. He could, however, meet him at the airport.

"I'm coming, Colby! Don't leave the country before I get there!"

***

"What did you just say?" Goku couldn't believe the words he heard coming out of Tenshinhan's mouth. It was... very odd.

"They're dead, Goku, and I didn't kill them. In fact, they were already dead when I got there."

Goku sighed. "How did they die?"

"Who do you think I am, the coroner?" he asked amusedly before responding. "It was probably the evisceration that did them in, but it also could have been the blood loss from the amputation of their limbs. I doubt it was the injection."

"What the hell *didn't* they do to them?" The question was purely rhetorical, but he received an answer anyway.

"The heart's still there, I've seen scorned lovers that have done strange things with them. Also, the eyes aren't missing. That's a retribution thing. You know, an eye for an eye and all that. I've got Chaozu searching for the murderer, but these jobs looks too professional for anything to surface."

There was no use wondering about it. "Was Yonagi among the deceased?"

"Hai and so were at least twenty other members of CAMI, the ones that weren't arrested anyway. A few have been spared and no one seems to know why."

"Hm. Domo arigatou for trying, Ten. I'll talk to you later. Ja."

It was hard to believe. A mysterious assassin comes out of nowhere and murders over twenty people in a single day. What was the reason behind it? Did it happen because of vengeance or was the killer just insane?

Thirty minutes later Vegeta found Goku still sitting there, thinking. "What's wrong?" he asked as he took a seat beside him.

"Many members of CAMI are dead," he responded.

"Isn't that what you wanted for the ones that hadn't been arrested?"

"Ten didn't do it, someone else did. I told him to just kill them, no torture whatsoever. The mystery guy tortured them excessively and that's what they died of."

Vegeta contemplated this. "You feel guilty about this? Goku, even if you hadn't asked Ten to kill them it probably would have still happened."

"Guilty, no. But I do feel sad. Despite their evil ways, most everyone doesn't deserve to be tortured. Yonagi is excluded from my previous statement. He purposely set out to hurt Gohan therefore he should have been purposely hurt as well."

"He was, Goku. It was a lot worse than what happened to Gohan, but I can only imagine how many other people he's hurt in similar ways. There's no use in thinking about it, though. What's done is done."

Goku knew that it was best to not think about it, but he couldn't get the murders out of his mind. Well, the sadness would at least fade over time he hoped.

***

After asking the woman at the information booth where the flight headed to Rome was going to depart, he had to head to a terminal that was pretty far away. When he made it to the gate, Colby was no where to be found.

' _I beat him here,_ ' he said to himself with some relief. Then he saw a familiar pale blonde head about to hand over his ticket. "Colby!" he shouted as he pushed his away through the throng of people. "Wait!" He made it just as Colby was about to move out of his reach.

"Gohan?" he asked in disbelief. "What are you doing here?"

"I can't let you go," he said, tears sliding down his cheeks. "I won't let you go."

Colby moved them out of the way of the other passengers who were starting to get annoyed with going around them. "Neither of us have a choice in this. As much as it hurts, I have to go."

"Damn your aunt," Gohan whispered before embracing his first love. "We will meet again, Colby. Count on it."

"I will. It's the only thing that's holding me together."

When the final boarding call came over the PA, neither boy wanted to let go. To be separated was cruel and unusual punishment, the bond would make it so. Colby kissed him gently on the lips and boarded the plane.

Gohan pressed his face against the window and watched the plane take off. Completely unaware, both boys were thinking the same exact thing as the distance between them grew greater: ' _There goes the other half of my soul._ '

***

No one suspected that he was behind the recent string of murders and no one ever would. He was the harmless one of the group, the idiot that would follow every order without question. Well, he might not be the smartest person in the world, but neither was he a complete dullard. He completely understood what Yonagi had been trying to do to the world and felt that it was up to him to stop it. None of his actions could not be traced back to the source and the final result was very pleasing. It had been his best performance.

The entire plot against Son Gohan could be traced back to Ashida Ryuichi who was the son of Yonagi's daughter, Achiko. Influenced by his grandfather's prejudiced behavior, he took it upon himself to rid his school of those who were different. Since the incident after gym class, Gohan had become the main target of the CAMI president. Yonagi wanted to expose him in the worst possible way to the country and incite a worldwide movement to kill everyone who didn't fit into a certain mold.

Now he was gone and their crusade died before it had a chance to really begin.

Why did he kill them in the first place? The answer is very simple. CAMI was responsible for the death of his younger brother, someone who he had been responsible for. His violent action was a combination of grief and vengeance, both potent ingredients for murder. All of the members who weren't arrested for trying to kill Gohan were killed by him. The ones he spared had become members after his brother's death. At first he was going to take his time, but when he discovered the mental anguish Gohan was going through he sped things up. He could not allow another boy to go through what his brother did.

Who was the person responsible for so many deaths? He was Matoke Tatsuya, otherwise known as Gidayu.


End file.
